During my 10 years of career coaching, working with some 5,000 clients, I have encountered many situations that my clients had to face at their employers. Some of them came to me after realizing that they had done something wrong in their job or in their career that was now causing them grief. In some cases a person’s career nearly ended while they were still in their prime because they lost their ability to find employment as a result of their deliberate actions (see below). This blog is a review of those experiences and to remind the blog readers how to manage their career so that they do not inadvertently get themselves on the “career suicide” path. In simple terms a career suicide can be defined as any deliberate act that seriously jeopardizes your career momentum, if not your career. Such acts include, from an “innocuous” Facebook posting, to a downright refusal to carry out your boss’ mandate at work:
- Subverting your boss:This is one of the more common approaches to career suicide when you do not support your boss’ agenda. Some clients do this actively by going around their boss and recruiting others in their camp to undermine their boss. Others do this passively (passive-aggressive behavior) where they find ways to subvert the boss’ agenda by predicting why their boss’ initiative would not succeed, and then working behind the scene towards making that a reality. Such behaviors, no matter how cleverly done, get exposed, and when they do, you have landed on a career suicide path. If you encounter such a situation, first find out the real reason for your stance and then see if you can reconcile with the agenda by actively working with your boss. If you cannot, then find yourself another job, either inside your own company or somewhere else.
- Disparaging Your Employer:This is yet another path for career suicide. Spreading bad words about your employer to others in your professional circles is never a good idea. This can be particularly tempting in interviews, when you are asked for the reason for leaving your current employer. No matter how true it is and no matter how publicly known it is that your employer is a jerk, do not expressly state that or imply in your response during such interviews.When you are tempted to say something negative about your employer, no matter who it is, make sure that you avoid that temptation at all costs.
- Having a Legal Battle:Some choose to take a legal avenue to deal with their problems or issues by taking their employer to court. Of course, this is an avenue available to anyone, but rarely such a course of action provides the relief you are looking for, long-term. You may get the satisfaction of vindication and of “showing” your employer that you mean business and that you have been harmed, but once the lawyers get involved and the proceedings begin on this track you often lose control over what happens, and its fallout can come back to haunt you long after the case is settled, even if you prevail.Pursue the legal course of action only when the circumstances are such that the harm you have suffered at the hands of your employer can only be remedied by going to the courts and that you are willing to take the “career suicide” risk if the outcome is not in your favor. Sometimes such an outcome, even in your favor, may net serve your career.Unless you are litigious by nature, try a prevention approach to such encounters by directly working with the offending party (your boss, colleague, or anyone else) through the available channels within your company (HR, Ombudsman, and others).
- Value Mismatch: It happened in the case of Greg Smith at Goldman Sachs over the period of his 10-year employment there, when the growing rift between his personal values and those emerging at his company started affecting him negatively. Read http://nyti.ms/x4BPoz Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs, to find out how he handled it. So, if you see a trend of an emerging culture, as he did at Goldman, that is going in the opposite direction to your own moral compass, do not fight it, but simply get out and find yourself a more suitable employer. Rather than suffering the fallout of the growing mismatch, Greg should have seen the trend and found himself another place to work that was more in line with his moral values. Waiting this long and then exposing the employer publicly reflects poorly on his own judgment.
- Employer Blackmail:In the case of one client he was not given the salary he expected at the end of one performance review. Without showing his disappointment and discussing that with his boss at the time of the review this client chose to wait for an opportunity to blackmail his company when, a few moths later, suddenly there was a problem in the workflow that only my client could solve. When his manager approached him to take charge and solve the problem, he promptly responded by demanding that he be given the raise he deserved, without which he would not work on the problem. Considering the options, his company relented and gave him a special bonus to make up for the “lost raise,” to get my client to solve the problem. Soon after that my client lost his favored position with management and was forced to leave the company the following year. Never blackmail your employer! It may work for a while, depending on the situation, but long-term it can only harm your career irreparably.The correct course of action is to confront the adverse situation positively and to resolve it by making a case in your favor. Most people want to avoid confrontation and conflict, but at the same time they are willing to let such conflicts pile up and then resort to taking drastic action—such as “going postal” to get revenge. This often backfires, as it did in this case.
When you are contemplating any action that can be seen as subversive or otherwise counterproductive reflect on it and see how it is going to affect your career long-term. If you are confused or are unsure, consult a professional to seek their advice. Once you take certain actions in your career they are very difficult to reverse.
Good luck!